Birthright Israel: Day One
In which we crawl in caves and eat lunch at a gas station. Next up: Ben Gurion’s grave.
June 12, 2012
Your trusty correspondant.(Photo by Margarita Korol)
We’re hot, sweaty, and covered in clay. We arrived at 7 this morning and have been going Extreme, as promised, all day long. We’ve now been up for more than 30 hours, and we’re starting to get weird.
Stay tuned today for more about Birthright Israel’s mission and rules as explained to us earlier—no drinking before 8 p.m., guys—and where we’re headed next.
Hebrew word of the day: misperei barzel, which literally translates to “numbers of iron.” Apparently that’s what IDF commanders say to their troops. It’s also what our tour guide Yoav says before we start counting off, which we do often, loudly, and in public. Then the person holding our Israeli flag, which travels with us at all times, yells degel. It means flag, people.
-Signing off for numbers 7, 17, 33, and 41
Stephanie Butnick is deputy editor of Tablet Magazine and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.
Stephanie Butnick is the founder of GOLDA, a Jewish lifestyle newsletter. She hosted the Tablet podcast Unorthodox, co-authored The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia: From Abraham to Zabar’s and Everything in Between, and worked as a writer and editor at Tablet.
